Sew a lining to your Nutmeg pattern
Lovely maker Saartje (@pleatsandcollars on Instagram) has writen an amazing post and tutorial for the CocoWawa blog on how she added a lining to her Nutmeg Trench.
The original pattern doesn't come with lining instructions, so you finish the inner seams with bias binding, an overlock stitch or a zigzag stitch. My aim was to create an in-between seasons design, perfect for beginners to tackle their first outerwear garment without the worries of adding a lining.
Having said that, I am so happy that Saartje took the plunge and did it herself! Her tutorial is great and it features all the steps, pictures and technical drawings so that you can add a lining to this or any other jacket, trench or coat. Shall we start? :)
Hack tutorial by Saartje (in her own words)
Hi all,
I decided to sew the Nutmeg Trench coat with added facings and a lining. In this post (which is a rather long one), I will try my best to explain how I did this. I hope you enjoy it! : )
Step 1: Altering your trench pattern
Before we start creating the lining and facing pieces, it is important to make any necessary alterations regarding fitting to the existing pieces. As we will be creating the new pattern pieces based on those, we need to make sure that the fit is correct prior to starting the process.
Once you are done, take your front bodices and cut off the part of the button placket starting from the second fold and add a 1cm seam allowance (you will later sew your facing to this seam).
Unaltered Front bodice pattern.
Altered front bodice pattern.
Step 2: Create new pattern pieces for the lining and facings
*Note: I didn't know how wide facings are upposed to be, so I simply chose a measurement that I liked. In the end, I decided for the finished facings to be 10cm wide on the sides and 7cm on the shoulders and neck. Feel free to choose any width of your liking.
Now, let's create the pattern pieces for the lining and facings.
Basically, you need to slice your front and back bodice pattern pieces into two and add a 1cm seam allowance (marked in red in the drawing below).
Make sure to add your allowance AFTER cutting your pattern pieces. If you cut out one piece including the seam allowance you would be deducting said allowance from the remaining piece, which will end up being too small. This will make more sense when you look at the pictures below.
Again, as I wanted for my front facings to be 10cm wide and my shoulder facings to be 7cm when finished, I cut out my facings at 11cm and 8cm respectively, and then I added the 1cm seam allowance (red line).
Front facing pattern.
Once you have done this, you can simply add 1cm to the remaining piece (again, red line). This will be your front lining.
Front lining piece.
Next, we are doing the same with our back bodice pattern piece.
Cut out your back facing with a 8cm width and then add 1cm seam allowance.
Back facing pattern.
After that, add another cm to the remaining pattern piece. If you want to go for the *extra* fancy detail, you can also add 3,5cm to the foldline, which will become a pleat later on. The function of this back pleat is to provide extra space while wearing the coat and it will also help when hemming your trench.
Back lining pattern.
Your sleeve pattern remains unaltered and can double as a lining pattern piece.
Step 3: Assemble outer-shell, facings and lining
1. Outer coat.
I started by stitching the outer-shell of the trench as per the instructions, however I did not bind my seams, as they will be covered by the lining at a later stage.
Also, I basted my collar onto the coat to prevent the neckline from stretching and to make sure that the collar was positioned perfectly before sandwiching it between the trench and the facing. I did not yet hem the outer-shell of the trench or attach the sleeve cuffs.
2. Facings.
My first step was to interface the whole front facings and the place where the button placket would be on the front bodice pieces of the outer-shell.
I stay-stitched the outer curve of the back facing piece so it would not stretch too much. Then, I sewed the facings together. Before sewing the facings to the coat I also added a loop to the back facing from where I could later hang my trench.
Next, I sewed the facings onto the outer-shell by simply pinning everything right sides together and sewing them with a 1cm seam allowance. I also reinforced the corners of the front facing pieces by backstitching a couple of times.
After that, I clipped the seams and pressed them open, before turning everything right side out. I went back to the collar and under-stitched it so it would stay in place.
Facings are attached to outer coat. You can see the added loop and a line of under stitching near the collar that is not visible from the other side.
3. Lining.
Last, I stitched my lining pieces together, including the sleeves. You are now left with an outer-shell and the lining as separates.
Step 4: Hemming the outer-shell of the trench
I did this step before attaching the lining. I hope I can explain this process well enough since it’s not really that tricky but it contains quite a few steps. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of pictures since at the time I did not think that I would be writing a blog post.
The most important thing to know is that you are hemming the outer-shell and the lining separately. So for now, ignore the lining. The steps below will solely be about the outer trench piece:
- First, sew a gathering stitch 1cm from the bottom edge of your trench.
- Then fold and press the outer edge 4cm, wrong sides together, towards the inside of the trench.
- While pressing, when you reach both outermost sides of the hem, increase the width of the fold to 4,3cm, so by 0,3cm.
Finished hem: when you grade an extra 0,3cm towards the end of your coat when pressing the crease of the hem into the outer coat, the corner of the inner facing won’t show on the outside once the coat is finished.
- Now, remember the gathering stitch? Because the hem is basically a circle you will see that it might not want to fit into the coat when you fold it over (you are essentially folding a big curve into a smaller curve). To fix this, simply pull from your gathering threads and match up both curves.
-
This is where things get a bit tricky to explain with no pictures, but let's give it a go:
-You need to fold your seam allowance up (4cm and 4,3cm at the edges) as well as your facings inwards (as if your coat is done). You will notice a lot of bulk where the facing is folded over, which we will need to get rid off before continuing. If you feel unsure about this step (we are going to cut into an almost finished coat) you can just skip it; however your seam will be quite bulky.
-Mark 2,5cm inside the edge of the front facing. At this mark, we are grading the hem to 2cm until you get to the seam where the facing is connected to the coat. Then youl grade that final part (the hem allowance of the facing itself) to 1,3 cm.
-Now fold the hem upwards and then fold the facings inwards and the bulk will be gone.
Diagram.
- Sew your hem. I stitched mine by hand using a hemming stitch because I did not want any stitchings to show on the outside of the trench.
Hemming stitch.
Step 5: Attaching the lining
I sewed the lining to the facing in small steps.
- First I pinned the back of the lining to the back facings and folded a new centre pleat of 3,5cm. I then sewed that down before continuing around the corners and down the front facing. I struggled a lot with the corners and ended up with less than perfect ones. If I were to make this again I think I would round off the corners of the front facing pieces.
Pleat in back lining.
The corners of the facing and lining were difficult to attach in a sharp corner.
- Be careful not to sew your front lining all the way down to your front facings but instead stop sewing about 15cm before you reach the hem.
- I did not grade any seam allowances but (carefully) pressed my lining towards the inside of the coat to make it look sharper.
- Then, I finished the sleeves by attaching the cuffs. Here, I also made sure that the lining was not twisted and then basted the lining and outer sleeves together to be treated as one. I would not omit this step since it will also show you if the lining is pulling on your outer fabric and distorting the shape of your coat.
- Try it on after basting the sleeve lining outer edge to the coat sleeve outer edge. If your sleeves look normal, simply attach your cuffs. If your sleeves looks a bit weird and your lining is pulling from your outer fabric, it means that your lining needs more space. Simply move the outer sleeve edge from your sleeve lining up inside your sleeve (this will all be covered by the sleeve cuff later).
- Next I cut off my lining at the same length as the finished outer coat. I folded the lining 1cm over and attached it to the hem of the outer coat at 3cm of the outer edge. This means the lining is a bit longer than the outer coat.
Attach the lining at 3cm onto the outer hem.
- I attached the lining by hand and only sewed it to the first layer of the outer hem so the stitching was not visible from the outside. I also stitched by hand that last 15cm of the lining to the front facings that we left open earlier.
- You will notice the tiniest bit of unfinished seam, the 3cm left of the front facings. This is normal and I sewed it down with a whip stitch so it’s hardly visible and won’t unravel.
- Next, just add your buttons and buttonholes and you’re done!
Phew!! That was an incredible detailed tutorial, right? Thank you so, so much to Saartje for explaining everything with so much detail.
I hope now you feel brave enough to add lining to your own Nutmeg Trench or Jacket?
Thanks so much for reading and happy sewing!
Ana
xxx
SEWING TECHNIQUES
MORE DRESSMAKING PATTERNS
INSPIRATIONAL HACKS